The title of this thread isn’t a smoke screen or hidden message for something else. I’m suggesting exactly what it says. I think most of us can agree that our team severely lacks leadership. We need someone to stay up and take the bull by the horns. On the NFL’s website this morning I read an interesting article that was written by Adam Schein and when you read it all the way through, he certainly makes some interesting points. The article talks about the issues that have occurred not just in 2012 season but also the 2011 season.

Since the 2011 season we’ve lost Ward and are about to lose Wallace, two receivers in two seasons. We led this season with all kinds of drama from Mike Wallace, who went on to have a rather disappointing season despite catching 8 TDs. Most recently we’ve heard someone call out LaMarr Woodley, - LeBeau suggest we could’ve won the super bowl, Antonio Brown suggest the locker room is divided, and during the season Rashard Mendenhall was suspended for ‘disrespecting the team’. On top of that our future Hall of Fame Quarterback called out the Offensive Coordinator, more than once.

Now, in this article there are some things I disagree with Schein on, such as the idea that injuries had nothing to do with where we finished this season. Such as the Bengals being a better football team than the Steelers, and the notion that we will cut ties with Heath Miller. I just don’t see that happening honestly, though I do think that we will cut Harrison and Hampton. The biggest thing I agree with is that Kevin Colbert has to stop living in the past. Ties need to be cut with some of the veterans; we shouldn’t go into rebuilding mode but we’ve got to become a younger football team and we need the veterans we do keep to step up and be leaders.

Many of these problems can be stemmed back to the lack of leadership, the loss of Farrior, Ward, Aaron Smith, etc. It won’t get any easier as Polamalu is not the man he once was, Ryan Clark is probably going to be heading into his last season with the Steelers, James Harrison likely won’t be on the roster, Woodley is seriously out of shape, Ike Taylor may have a couple seasons left, Keisel, if he remains, will likely be on his last season as a Steeler and we’re all pretty sure Hampton won’t be back.

I don’t think we’re as bad off as the article by Schein makes us sound but I’m also not going to ignore the fact that there are issues. We are a young defense and healthy, consistent offensive line away from winning our 7th Super Bowl, so I don’t believe what LeBeau said is far-fetched at all. I also don’t believe the Ravens are THAT much better than us.
I agree with some of the people like 43 who said that we cannot fix all of our issues in a single draft, that couldn’t be more true. But we have to have a solid draft this season and need to have another solid draft the next time around. Colbert, while he has done a relatively solid job with early picks, has to do better overall with ALL the picks in our draft. There are going to be misses, that’s unavoidable, especially in later rounds, but we’ve got to end up with more hits than misses, something that could be argued in the last few seasons.
Tomlin has to get control of this team, get rid of the drama, and reestablish discipline. Undisciplined teams will not win very often..just look at the New York Jets; the comparison made in the aforementioned article.

Heading forward, I am very confident about what level of success we are going to have; I’ve said that in several threads. I truly bleed black and gold and I’ll always believe that we’re headed into our best season yet even if, in the end, it doesn’t work out that way. We do have a lot of youth, if Worilds works out; we’re not as bad off at LB as we could be. If Gilbert finally comes around perhaps our Offensive Line will finally gain some consistency. There are things, such as the Strength & Conditioning Coach that I would change, but it’s not my decision. At the end of the day, it’s not hard to realize that the lack of leadership spawns chaos. We need people to step up, we’re close to breaking through to the ‘new era’ of Pittsburgh football, but we could be as close to nailing shut our own coffin, figuratively speaking. That is not to say I think we'll cease to be competitive, but what we do in this offseason, including the draft, could and likely will determine the 'road we travel' in the next few seasons.

They're nowhere near the NYJ in terms of ridiculousness. From an on the field/off the field/Front office/media perspective, the Jets are a mess and not even comparable.

It's not lack of leadership. Ben is the QB, he can say whatever he wants to the media and get away with it, like any other QB does. It was a stupid thing to say, but he did apologize for it and further explain himself to smooth it out. Still, should of never been said, but Ben does that sometimes. No leader is going to change that.

Mendenhall no showed a game. Nothing anyone can do about that. The guy is unhappy with his role on the team, but not playing good enough to justify a better one. So he just didn't show up, which is pretty amazingly stupid, but again, what's someone going to do? Hold his hand and drag him to the stadium?

The anonymous Woodley comment reflected poorly on us, but only because it was anonymous. If there was a name put to that, everyone would have been fine with it.

They're nowhere near the NYJ in terms of ridiculousness. From an on the field/off the field/Front office/media perspective, the Jets are a mess and not even comparable.

It's not lack of leadership. Ben is the QB, he can say whatever he wants to the media and get away with it, like any other QB does. It was a stupid thing to say, but he did apologize for it and further explain himself to smooth it out. Still, should of never been said, but Ben does that sometimes. No leader is going to change that.

Mendenhall no showed a game. Nothing anyone can do about that. The guy is unhappy with his role on the team, but not playing good enough to justify a better one. So he just didn't show up, which is pretty amazingly stupid, but again, what's someone going to do? Hold his hand and drag him to the stadium?

The anonymous Woodley comment reflected poorly on us, but only because it was anonymous. If there was a name put to that, everyone would have been fine with it.

I agree on the Mendenhall thing and for that matter, most of what you said, I was simply stating what the artcile suggested. As far as the first bolded statement, you're 1000% correct and in fact I was kind of appalled at the fact Schein even made such a comparison.

The next two are basically the same thing. I disagree to a large extent. It's not about holding anyone's hand it's about setting an examlpe to the youth on the football team. You're not going to change the minds of the 'old heads' like Harrison, Woodley, Mendenhall, but you can have a positive impact on the younger talent that has a future on this team. Leader is an important element on any football team and the biggest area we lack that leadership is defense.

You said that, not me. I do think it's time to cut ties with Harrison, Hampton, Colon, & Foster. I think Troy & Keisel should be retained for another season, as well as Clark. Foote, imo, has to step up and be the vocal leader he once was.

Listen, in no way am I suggesting that 'it's all over' for the Steelers, that's just a stupid notion. We've got one of the best QB's in the league, Joe Flacco has nothing on Ben Roethlisberger. I honestly believe Tom Brady is on his way down, it honestly looked like he had lost his passion in the AFC Championship Game, and there's no denying Peyton Manning is near the end of his career. As long as Ben stays healthy, we will compete. But denying that we have issues is equally as naive. We can't keep having the lack of discipline, on and off of the field, the lack of unification in the locker room (if there truly is one), and something has to give with the injuries. We're nothing like the Jets, absolutely nothing that is just idiotic and I wish I could say that I'm surprised Schein made that statement but he's a Jets homer who was looking for a 'but we're not alone' to make himself feel better.

As it has been said, it's going to take more than 1 season worth of drafts and offseason work to 'fix' what's wrong. But I TRULY believe we are going to win the division in the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 seasons. That is how much optimism I took from our 6-3 to 8-8 season. Yes, we went 2-5, but look at the # of injuries we had in those 7 games. The notion that we should 'respect the Ravens' and that their injuries were even comparable is laughable. The Ravens KNOW they got lucky to win the division, what they did in the playoffs had nothing to do with luck, that much I admit.

But let's start facing the facts; there are issues in Pittsburgh. Colbert and company can choose to ignore those issues and watch the team detoriate or they can do what they feel is best for the team and keep the team competitive. My guess is they'll do the latter, realistically, whether we like what they're doing or not, it always seems to work out that way.

You said that, not me. I do think it's time to cut ties with Harrison, Hampton, Colon, & Foster. I think Troy & Keisel should be retained for another season, as well as Clark. Foote, imo, has to step up and be the vocal leader he once was.

Swap Keisel and Hampton and I agree.

Keisel struggled at times this season, and while he is probably better than Snack at this point, we at least have a replacement lined up for Keisel._________________

You said that, not me. I do think it's time to cut ties with Harrison, Hampton, Colon, & Foster. I think Troy & Keisel should be retained for another season, as well as Clark. Foote, imo, has to step up and be the vocal leader he once was.

Swap Keisel and Hampton and I agree.

Keisel struggled at times this season, and while he is probably better than Snack at this point, we at least have a replacement lined up for Keisel.

My wife is a diehard Keisel fan I am obligated to disagree with you But your point is not invalid. Just don't tell her I said that. lol.